1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video BIOS (Basic Input Output System) loading apparatus and a control method thereof and, more particularly, to a video BIOS loading apparatus and a control method thereof which automatic upgrades a video BIOS for a video card and eliminates the inconvenience of manually upgrading the video BIOS when replacing an existing video card.
2. Description of the Related Art
A video BIOS is a set of instructions used by a central processing unit (CPU) of a computer system for operating a video card. In general, a video BIOS in a personal computer system is included in a system BIOS stored in a read only memory (ROM) as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,754 to William J. Piazza and entitled Apparatus And Method For BIOS Interface To Features In Multiple Adapter Cards In One Operation Using Registers With Bits Distributed Across The Adapter Cards and U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,411 to Kazunori Yamaki and entitled Computer System Which Can Operate In A Plurality Of Display Modes.
An exemplary video BIOS loading apparatus is explained below by referring to FIGS. 6 and 7. The exemplary video BIOS loading apparatus loads a video BIOS stored in a read only memory (ROM) to a random access memory (RAM) in order to facilitate efficient access of the video BIOS by a CPU. FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of an exemplary video BIOS loading apparatus. FIG. 7 is a flow chart of operation of the exemplary video BIOS loading apparatus in FIG. 6.
As shown in FIG. 6, the exemplary video BIOS loading apparatus includes a CPU 300, a RAM 310, a ROM 320 having a system BIOS and a video BIOS, a video controller 330, a system bus 340, a peripheral device 350, an expansion slot 360 whereon a video card 370 may be engaged, and a jumper 380.
Operation of the exemplary video BIOS loading apparatus is explained below referring to FIG. 7. The exemplary video BIOS loading apparatus begins operation when the power is turned on. CPU 300 reads the system BIOS stored in ROM 320. CPU 300 then checks jumper 380, at step S71, to determine, at step S72, whether a video card BIOS in video card 370 is to be loaded in RAM 310. If jumper 380 has been set to load the video card BIOS, then it is loaded to RAM 310 at step S73. If jumper 380 has not been set to load the video card BIOS, then the video BIOS stored in ROM 320 is loaded in RAM 310 at step S84.
A user may wish to replace an existing video card with an upgraded video card manufactured by the same company or with a video card that is manufactured by a different company. In such cases, the user may also need to reset the computer system so that the CPU would use a more suitable video BIOS for the replaced video card. That is, if the user replaces the existing video card with an upgraded video card thereof, it is preferable to use an upgraded video BIOS therefor. If the user replaces the existing video card with a different company's video card, it is preferable to use a video BIOS made by that company than the existing video BIOS.
Under a conventional video BIOS loading apparatus, a user has to manually change the jumper's setting in order to reset a computer system to use an upgraded video BIOS or a different video BIOS when he replaces an existing video card with an upgraded video card of the same company or a video card of different company. This is inconvenient since such procedure takes a considerable time and since typical users possesses little technical expertise in computer hardware and would have difficulty resetting the computer system by themselves.
In addition to the inconvenience described above, the conventional video BIOS loading apparatus requires a video BIOS to be stored in a ROM even when a video card BIOS in a video card is used in place of the video BIOS, which is a waste of valuable memory space of a ROM and results in an increase in production costs of a computer system.